This invention relates generally to bale wagons, and specifically to apparatus for use on a bale wagon to prevent the outward dislocation of bales during the transfer thereof from a bale-accumulating table to a load bed.
It is accepted present day practice to form bales of crop material such as hay or the like into stacks through the employment of an automatic bale wagon. One type of bale wagon which has achieved wide-spread commercial acceptance is the automatic bale wagon which employs the three table concept, as originally illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,848,172 which issued to Gordon E. Grey. Many refinements have been made to the Grey bale wagon, such as those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,945,507; however, the basic concept has remained substantially the same.
The Grey bale wagon includes a first table which successively receives bales from a bale loader or pickup on the wagon and accumulates a predetermined number of them, for example two, being arranged end-to-end in a row, a second table which successively receives the accumulated rows of bales from the first table and accumulates a plurality of them, such as 4, 5 or 6 rows, which plurality of rows is commonly called a tier of bales, and a third table or load bed which successively receives the tiers from the second table and accumulates a plurality of the tiers for example, 7, to form a stack thereon. Once the stack has been accumulated on the load bed, it may be unloaded by pivoting the load bed 90 degrees and depositing the stack on the ground with the first tier of bales which was previously accumulated on the second table now being the lowermost tier of the stack in contact with the ground surface.
Another type of bale wagon, which is generally shown and described in this disclosure, employs a stationary bale-receiving area which roughly corresponds to the pivotable first table of the Grey-type wagon discussed above. The bale-receiving area and bale-accumulating table are substantially at the same level, and the bales are transferred therebetween by a pusher mechanism in front of the bale-receiving area which engages the bales and displaces them rearwardly onto the forward portion of the bale-accumulating table. A more detailed description of this bale wagon can be found in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 891,890 entitled "Bale Wagon" filed concurrently herewith in the name of the same inventor and assigned to the same assignee as the instant application. The above-mentioned application is expressly entirely incorporated herein by reference.
Any bale wagon which employs a pivoting bale-accumulating table to deposit a tier of bales on a load bed encounters significant tier stability problems when operating under hilly conditions. The bales of almost any tier pattern, but especially the double rail and center rail tie tier patterns shown in FIGS. 25 and 26 of U.S. Pat. No. 3,945,507, have a tendency to fall outwardly during the transfer step because of the combined forces of gravity and adjacent bale pressures. Whenever a bale moves outwardly beyond the edge of the bale-accumulating table, the opportunity increases for the bale to contact the load bed sideboards so that the outer end of the bale will be sheared off as transfer is completed.
Some bale wagons attempt to overcome these problems by affixing a relatively small side rail along the edges of the bale-accumulating table. While this does reduce the likelihood of bale "fallout", it requires the sideboards on the load rack to be moved outwardly to allow clearance for the rails. The clearance gap allows the bales to shift on the load rack and also allows the rail bales to shift outwardly against the sideboards, resulting in poor stacks.
The invention to be described below completely overcomes the above-noted problems, and results in a much more efficient and versatile farm implement.